Work is awesome, Waterloo Account, Cereal is working

Lots of stuff going on today. Work was aaaaaaamaaaaaaaaazing, as usual. I looooved it. So turns out that our project is in pretty high demand, and a lot of people are asking for it, so that is just soooo cool. It is going to be amazing to have worked on something that benefits so many people!! Good times. Can't wait to hear what people think once they start using it, this is super amazing.

Got some major stuff done at work today, this has been a super productive week. So that rocks. Also getting to chill with Mattabet Parrott a bunch at work, and he is a legend, so that is good. So, as expected, work is amazing.

I got an email yesterday saying, "Guess what! We're closing your University of Waterloo computer account and email address!" Whaaat?! Haha, yeah I guess I should have seen that coming. I'm kindof surprised that they wait almost a year after you graduate to close your account. Anyway, it's cool but I am doing a huge download of files from my Waterloo account to my computer here to make sure I have all my old programming projects and stuff. I guess I can sign up for a lifetime Waterloo Alumni email address, I guess I should probably sign up for that.

So since Waterloo is closing down my account, I assume that means my Waterloo website will disappear. So I've saved everything on there, and wanted to make sure I didn't lose the Java Applet of our Euchre Game that we programmed in 2nd year!! So I've posted it here, check it out!

http://www.mikejutan.com/euchre/

The cereal seems to be working nicely already. I had some cereal as a snack at about 4:30pm today and it worked out well. I left work at 6:30 and then took the bus, had a small snack and then went grocery shopping with my bus transfer!! This worked out really well since I could buy more and just take it back on the bus, and I wasn't super hungry since I'd had a snack in the afternoon. So that was awesome.

Frank's wife Jessica and her friend Christy are coming to ILM tomorrow, Jess has an interview for a Render TD position so best of luck to her for her interview. I'll be meeting up with them afterwards to have lunch and chill for a bit which will be awesome.

The weekend "plans" are pretty much not planned yet, which is perfect. I wanted to just chill again for most of the time this weekend. No doubt I will end up doing some stuff, but I am totally psyched to just relax and get some major housework done!! I should go to Macy's soon too and buy my duvet, I am just waiting for the 20% off coupons to come again in the mail.

Chillin' with friends, good times

Tonight was fun, saw a movie with Frank, Jess, Josh and Jess's friend Christy who is visiting from Texas. Good times. Then off to a Mexican place for some enchiladas (which were really good!!!!!!!) I haven't had those before and it was pretty tasty.

Amazing day at work too, lots of fun stuff to do at work, our project is going really well. I finished a major section of it today that I've been working on for a week or two, and pretty intensely over the past couple of days so it was super cool to get that taken care of. Sweet!

IMDB Updated

Looks like my IMDB page is now updated, awesome!!!!!!!!

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2867705/

I am still so excited about this that I could pretty much stare at that webpage for half an hour and then run around the block with excitement. Good times.

Afri-Can Oil Can Electric Guitar

Ok now I have even more incentive to save my money for my trip to South Africa...

I just remembered that way back in 1st year there was a guy in our residence who had this SUPER cool guitar called an "Afri-Can" Guitar, made in Cape Town, South Africa. It's made out of an Oil Can!! Amazing. The sound was pretty similar to a regular electric guitar, maybe a little "clangier" but definitely still a nice clean sound, and the instrument is pretty cool and super unique.

Where and how did the guitar originate?

Afri-can Guitars is the brain child of Graeme Wells, an engineer residing in Cape-Town, South-Africa.

Graeme became aware that there was a need for an environmentally friendly guitar using predominantly re-cycled products and keeping the use of wood to a minimum.

The idea of using a 5 litre oil can is not new as it has been used since the introduction of the oil can back in the early 1900's. Graeme took it to the next level though with the development of an aluminium neck and noiseless pick-ups.

The instrument now has a unique sound of it's own and is carving a place for itself on the world stage.

Check out these pictures!! Haha so cool. Looks like the company is now called "Township Guitars", and they start at about $400 which isn't bad. Haha, I love it. http://www.townshipguitars.com



Lots of different designs, some with the South African flag as the design


Haha, Castrol Oil can


Standard pickups


Someone rockin' out


This is cool, a more traditional African art design

And... I FINALLY made my cereal, and it's gonna change the world

So they say it takes a while to get out of the Waterloo "Co-op Mode" once you've started your first post-University full-time job... and a grand 6 months later... I finaaaaaaaaaaaaally have gotten myself organized enough (and "out of Co-op mode" enough) to make two things I've been planning to make for (at least) the past 4 or 5 months...

1) My lunch!
2) My muesli "granola" cereal!

Finally!!!!!!!!

So yes, proud as I am, I figured I'd better post photos so my Mom actually believes me now that I've actually done it.

I'm using something to the effect of the famous Jutan Muesli recipe, but throwing in a few things of my own. I used the usual rolled oats, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, cashews and roasted almonds, but also got a "berry mix" which included raisins, cranberries, blueberries and cherries. I also dumped in 2 bags of dried bing cherries which is also awesome. I bought dried ranier cherries but they are gross, so I didn't add them to the cereal. Anyway it looks good eh?!

This cereal is going to make my entire life better!! And why, you might ask? Well... I'm going to have a small bowl for breakfast, at work. This will alleviate my hunger after the 30 min bike ride into work. Also, after 30 min of pretty fierce cardio (biking), I really need some energy to kickstart the rest of my day, and it's been ridiculous to just run right into morning meetings after a 30 min bikeride and without food (or enough food). Ok, great. It'll also be a good time to get my metabolism into overdrive, which is always good.

It will also stop me from overeating the tasty snacks that are at work every week, doughtnuts, muffins, danishes, they taste awesome, but they are really bad for me. So if I eat my cereal, it'll keep my excitement down for those tasty but unhealthy snacks. Ok that's two awesome benefits.

Three, I can now eat less at lunch. Since the oatmeal will carry me through the morning, I won't need as much lunch, so I'll eat less and that's good. It therefore automatically spreads my meals out across the day. And as yet another side benefit, I won't want to eat an entire lunch from the cafeteria, so if I do buy lunch, I'll save some for a snack in the afternoon. More commonly though, I'll be able to bring in a reasonably small lunch, and just eat that and be satisfied with it. Awesome.

I can have cereal again as a snack at around 4pm. This will keep me going since I tend to be at work until at least 6:30pm, sometimes 7:00pm or later. So this will keep me going so I am not starving by the end of the work day, and will keep my metabolism up for the bike ride home.

Finally, when I get home, I don't need to rush rush rush a quick dinner because I am really hungry. Instead, I'll spend more time, making a higher quality meal, making a bit more (so I can make my lunch for the next day at the same time)... and I'll eat better, have nice and balanced meals, AND become a better cook.

And all of this because I finally got off my "kiester", got my act together, and made the darn cereal FINALLY.

Oh yeah. And the cereal is going to make it so I can save enough money to go to South Africa this summer too. Since I won't be spending $6-$10 every day on lunch at work, I'll be saving approximately $180 per month. $180 * 5 months = $900, which is about 1/2 of my ticket to South Africa. Beautiful.

So if anyone tells you muesli can't change the world, tell them to read this. Thanks Mom and Dad for finally helping me get my head in gear and do this.


All the ingredients


Cereal before mixing


I used most of the ingredients, but there was some left over for next round


My cereal is done!!!!!!!


Looks good, eh?!


And finally, I made my lunch too

Ratatouille wins Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Film

As of this evening, I can now say that I contributed to a Golden Globe Award Winning Film. How AWESOME IS THAT?!?!???!?!?!! Congrats to all my buddies at Pixar for an achievement that is definitely well-deserved. What an awesome movie, and despite the glitz and glamour gone from the Globes this year due to the ongoing battle between the studios and the writers... it's still just fantastic that the hard work of everyone at Pixar was recognized tonight. Good on 'ya, folks.

Getting stuff organized

Today has been a good day in my new attempt to keep my weekends relaxing and from being a complete runaround all the time. It was really good, I had a pretty relaxing day for a change and I think this is going to be very good for me. Next week I want to spend some time walking on the beach.

I got up nice and late which was fantastic. Then talked to my parents for a while, then took a book and went to a coffee place near my house that I've been meaning to go to for a while. I got a nice coffee and literally sat there reading with the sun coming in the window for an hour and a half. Beautiful. Then took a walk through my neighbourhood, checking out some shops that I didn't know were there, doing a bit of exploring, and then got some groceries on the way home. Tonight some chatting with my sister, and now I am going to unpack my stuff from my trip to Canada (haven't unpacked my suitcase and it's been a week already), and get some other stuff organized. I think if I up the priority on sorting out stuff, I'll have a much nicer, cleaner place, and I'll be more relaxed on the weekends. This is pretty important and today was a good step in the right direction.

Whoa, check this out!! Also giving myself time to relax on the weekend makes me feel less pressured and free to explore ideas and reading that I've been wanting to do for ages. I just went to the Honda site and read this for a while, they have some really interesting stuff happening, they are releasing a Honda FCX Hydrogen Fuel Cell Car, this year?!?!!!!! Wow. http://automobiles.honda.com/fcx-clarity amazing!!

Seeing some old friends

So my first attempt at a weekend of solitude and doing stuff by myself, relaxing, not rushing around... is going ok. Still turns out there is a lot of cool stuff going on that I want to be a part of and don't want to miss out on. So I think tomorrow I am going to stay at home all day and do nothing but clean my apartment, do some laundry, and unpack some stuff and do some general housework. I feel like I need to do a lot of that lately, so I really want to put in the effort and give my house a little more love. If the weather's nice tomorrow I'll take a little walk and have a coffee at this coffee place down the road I haven't been to yet (but keep walking by and thinking, "Hey I should go there for a coffee some time!!") Should be awesome.

Friday night I went downtown and met up with my old Pixar buddies, Jake and Amanda, Kev, Jon, Angelique, and John's brother Kit and his friend Matt. We got some Nan King (of course), chatted a bunch, talked about a whole bunch of cool stuff, Angelique picked me up the new Pixar Ratatouille Hawaiian Shirt at the Pixar Christmas Sale a few weeks ago, and the car "Fred" which I didn't have yet. Jake hooked me up with an awesome Kori Turbowitz car which I've been trying to get for ages too. Sweet.

Today I went to the market, chilled out a bit, it was a bit crowded there but I got some chill time at the water after getting my coffee at Blue Bottle and a nice blackberry tart which was still warm. Then met up with the Waterloo Google boys who I haven't seen in ages, we got a bagel, chilled out, went to some random places for shopping, and ended up going to see the movie "There Will Be Blood" downtown and then to Gordon Biersch. It was fun, and the movie was a bit crazy, bit still well done. See the "There Will Be Blood" review that I posted earlier. Good stuff.

So it was a great couple of evenings but tomorrow I think I am going to just stay around here and get some stuff done in the apartment. I could probably go grocery shopping, but maybe I'll just leave that until next weekend instead.


Another glorious Brooks Jutan photo


J-Kiz and A-Griz


Kev and I


Oh, Blue Bottle Coffee, how awesome you are


Good stuff


Bay Bridge, nice blue skies


Beautiful day today


Good timmmmes


Wall-E cutout at the movie theatre!!!!!!


Amazing!!!!!!!


Matt and Dimitry at this weird car we found with computer parts on it


Fred and Kori Turbowitz cars


Ratatouille Hawaiian Shirt

Movie Review: There Will Be Blood

Tonight I went with some friends to see the "American epic" film, "There Will Be Blood", starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Paul Dano. Daniel Day-Lewis was just plain amazing, the acting was brilliant, the character was just an absurd human being, and he played it very, very well.

The filming style was very interesting, sometimes really unique and out-of-the-ordinary, such as the actors actually affecting the camera lens at times - there was a dash of oil which hit the camera lens at the beginning of the film, water hits the camera lens at another time as well. Pretty cool. I liked some of the other techniques used, the entire opening of the film had absolutely no dialogue, the first words were spoken maybe only 5 minutes into the film. Pretty interesting way to portray the film. Generally the cinematography was awesome, some beautiful shots at night with silhouettes against the sky with an oil well burning in the background, really, really nicely done there. So artistically, and acting-wise, I think it worked really well.

I have 2 major "beefs" with the film though. The continuity sucked. And man, this made it confuuuuusssing. It was funny, we all talked about it afterwards and some of us took certain things for granted, which others totally didn't understand, and vice-versa. For instance, my friend Yaron and I definitely understood that the little boy's father was killed in the oil mining process, and that DDL's character had to take him on as his own. That seemed obvious to me, even with absolutely no dialogue during the opening parts of the film. On the other hand, I had ABSOLUTELY NO CLUE that Paul Dano was playing 2 different characters, who just so happened to be twin brothers. They never again referred to the 1st brother until right at the end of the film, and the way DDL talked to the 2nd brother made it appear that he was the same person as the first brother. They had different names, but I didn't catch the name of the first brother since he was on screen for literally 1 minute of the entire film. It was a major freakin' plot point, why didn't they make it more clear to the audience?!?!! This was REALLY confusing for me. The 1st brother could easily have had a different haircut, or clothes, or facial hair... SOMETHING to differentiate the two of them! Man, that was confusing. It made some parts of the movie really hard to follow because you couldn't really understand why the 2nd brother was acting in such a way if he knew the information you thought he knew (since I thought he was the same guy as was just on screen.) They handled this situation quite badly, and although they referred to the "2 sons and 2 daughters" of the household, you never saw both brothers in the room at once (since they were played by the same actor), and no photos or discussion of the 1st brother after his brief 1 confusing minute on-screen. Terrible. This was very badly done for a movie that was technically and artistically so good.

A possible explanation for this might be that Paul Dano was asked to play the role of Eli (the 2nd brother) at the last minute:

In an interview on the National Public Radio program "Fresh Air with Terry Gross," Paul Dano told Gross that he had originally been cast in the much smaller role of Paul Sunday, Eli's brother, and another actor had been cast as Eli. However, after Paul Dano had already started filming his one scene as Paul Sunday, Paul Thomas Anderson decided to replace the actor playing Eli. Anderson then asked Dano to play Eli Sunday (a much bigger role) as well as Paul Sunday, and they decided to change the film to make the brothers identical twins. Anderson asked Dano to play Eli on a Thursday, and filming for the role began four days later, on the next Monday. Daniel Day-Lewis, by contrast, had a whole year to prepare to play Daniel Plainview.

Paul Dano was very good, but it did kindof show that this perhaps was not planned. At least the storyline with the 2 identical twins was very badly explained in my opinion, and they should have been more obvious about it.

So that was my first "beef" with the story. I suppose the 2nd one also has to do with continuity. I understood that DDL's character was terrible and represented fierce no-holds barred capitalism... but the random freak-out at the end of the film seemed really out-of-character, and not really plausible. I know we were supposed to hate him, and I know that we're not supposed to like him for sending his son away, and revealing his apparent "true feelings" for his son... but what the heck is the deal with the last 15 minutes of the film?!?! The turnaround to Paul Dano's character was interesting, and the way he made him uncomfortable in the same way as he had previously been made uncomfortable was very well done and creepy. But even more creepy was the freak-out of DDL's character, and I thought it was pretty unexpected and just plain terrible. The acting was superb and I know we are supposed to hate DDL's character... but it just didn't seem to fit. To me, it really broke me out of the illusion of the film, and I felt like it pushed the characters too far. The dialogue about the straws and the milkshakes was funny, sure, but it seemed way too colloquial and modern to fit in the supposed 1927 timeline. I don't know, maybe I'm analyzing it too much, but I don't think people would have really sounded like that in 1927, and to me it kindof broke the illusion and pulled you out of the story a bit.

Still, glorious acting and well-made film. I just thought the continuity and some key parts of the script could have been a bit better. Not sure if I'd give it the 89% it's got on Rottentomatoes and the 9.0 it's got on IMDB at the moment. DDL deserves an Oscar for his acting, but I think the script and general flow of the film could have been a bit tighter. Also, man was it long! 2 hours and 40 minutes, and so about the same length as Jesse James. But I thought the flow was better in Jesse James, and in this film I definitely felt the story dragging somewhat and I think some tighter timings and pacing may have made for a better final cut. Well done though in terms of the production, that effort was awesome. Just watch this film for DDL's acting, not necessarily the plot.

Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis

Check this out!

When published in France, Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel Persepolis, the story of growing up in Iran during the Islamic revolution and war with Iraq, garnered comparisons to Art Spiegelman’s Maus, and won several prestigious comic book awards.

“You've never seen anything like Persepolis – Marjane Satrapi may have given us a new genre.” – Gloria Steinem

So again I am insanely lucky to be living in San Francisco. Marjane Satrapi is coming to talk here in a few months!! Sooooo awesome. Persepolis has been recently made into an animated film, and shared the Jury Prize at Cannes this year, and has been submitted as the Best Foreign Film entry from France this year. Pretty amazing stuff. And pretty cool to get a chance to hear the author talk. This is going to be ammmaazzzing!!!!!!!!!

Autodesk and ILM win Scientific and Technical Academy Awards

Check out this press release from AMPAS from last week...

http://www.ampas.org/press/pressreleases/2008/08.01.04a.html

Technical Achievement Awards (Academy Certificate)

To Duncan Brinsmead, Jos Stam, Julia Pakalns and Martin Werner for the design and implementation of the Maya Fluid Effects system.

This system is used to create simulations of gaseous phenomena integrated into the widely available Maya tool suite, using an unconditionally stable semi-Lagrangian solver.

Scientific and Engineering Awards (Academy Plaque)

To Nick Rasmussen, Ron Fedkiw and Frank Losasso Petterson for the development of the Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) fluid simulation system.

This production-proven simulation system achieves large-scale water effects within ILM’s Zeno framework. It includes integrating particle level sets, parallel computation, and tools that enable the artistic direction of the results.

Now this... is JUST AWESOME.

Check out Kristjan's awesome band

So my twin/long-lost-brother/buddy Kristjan who I recently saw in Toronto has a reaaaaaally sick band. His passion for awesome Saxophone playing is pretty clear when you hear him rockin' out on some of these tracks. They are playing lots of shows in Toronto, and if you're in the area, you should check them out.

http://www.ketchharbourwolves.com

Awesome stuff.

Yeah, I bought the Marc Ecko Star Wars Hoodie

Oh man. Yeah, I bought it.

So I've been searching long and hard for this beautifully amazing ultra-hip, totally legendary, absolutely awesome hip hop Star Wars hoodie. As I mentioned in earlier posts, fashion designer Marc Ecko recently scored the rights to make some Star Wars style clothing, but in his crazy "urban wear" style. And this really couldn't be more amazing.

Anyway since it's 1) Marc Ecko (remember how obsessed I was with this stuff in high school) and 2) Star Wars (I love my job), it was pretty high on my list to try to find this. These are going for a fortune on Ebay, and the Marc Ecko Boba Fett Hoodie (MSRP was $98) was selling on Ebay for something ridiculous like $550. Ouch. So I've been searching high and low to try to find the Hoth hoodie at regular retail price, and I tripped right over a store right here near me, in Sunnyvale, California. They just so happened to have a S, L and XL of the Marc Ecko Star Wars Hoth Hoodie in stock. Oh man.

So yes, it was a fortune. And yes, it is totally unnecessary. And yes, I am still paying off the rest of my Europe trip. And yes, I'm saving up to go to South Africa this summer.

But, Marc Ecko and Star Wars? This is the only chance for it. And it's sort of like my "work uniform", right? :)

Anyway, here's some pics so I can justify my extravagant/awesome purchase.


Awesome


Amazing


Soooo cooool


Glorious


Don't you wish you bought it now?!

Back in San Francisco

Man what a long day. It's now 12:57am PST, that's 3:57am EST. Crazy. I just got home and made a snack and I am sooooo tired. I gotta to bed... but first, some bloggin'.

Today was sweet/tiring but awesome. I got on the airport transfer bus and went to the USA to get on a flight from there. This was fine and the coolest part is that the dude sitting behind me on the bus goes to FIEA, the Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy, part of UCF in Orlando, Florida. Check it out at http://www.fiea.ucf.edu

This was really awesome to chat to him and he's the only Canadian down there and is working on becoming a project manager. Very interesting to hear the details of his school. It essentially sounds like a training ground that is partially run by EA's Tiburon Studio in association with the University of Central Florida. Pretty awesome idea, and pretty awesome that EA basically created a training ground for new employees to learn. It sounded really cool and hands-on, and they essentially just all get together, organize themselves, and make a game! So crazy. I am pretty convinced that it's a good idea for these guys just to throw themselves into the deep end and learn the process of making a video game as they are actually making a video game. Very good, hand-on approach it sounds like, and the dude I met seemed pretty psyched about the whole thing. Pretty awesome.

No worries getting to the airport and then to Chicago Midway. When I got to Chicago Midway it turns out that my connecting flight to San Francisco (supposed to be 1 hr 30 min later) is now delayed from 7:15pm to 9:00pm. D'oh. There have been some massive storms over the past weekend in San Francisco and so I asked the lady at the desk if any flights have been leaving for San Francisco. The previous one to leave was 1:30pm, that's it. D'oh. So I go for some pizza and relax and plan to go to the flight area and open my laptop and watch a movie while I wait for the plane. I figure it's probably going to be canceled and I'll spend the night getting closely acquainted with the floor of Terminal B in the Chicago Airport. Was not too excited about sleeping in the airport, but whatcha gonna do. Anyway, it all worked out and I am home in San Francisco already.

As I am walking back from getting food, I notice the screen says that the delay is now only until 8:35pm, not 9:00pm?!?!?! Ok, interesting, probably a good sign. By the time I get back to the flight area (after ordering a McD's Sweet Tea - a southern Iced Tea from McDonald's), the departure info now says "On Time", what's up with that?!! Turns out they eventually announced that the "delay had been lifted" on the plane!!!!!!!! Crazy. So that was a surprise, and it was already 6:45pm so it was normal boarding time anyway! We all got on the plane, then it stayed there for about another hour. And then we took off back to San Francisco!! Pretty sweet. Anyway, it is a bit rainy here but seems totally fine. Maybe there were lots of storms this afternoon and that's why the planes weren't going to San Francisco. Good times!!

Southwest didn't have TVs so on the way home I read some more of my book and then talked to some nice people on the place, the girl beside me had just been to a Jewish wedding in Baltimore which is really cool and there was a nice man there who is a writer and is friends with the author Nick Hornby which was really cool!!!!! They were nice and it was great to talk to everyone on the way back to San Francisco.

Now I am here, the apartment is just as I left it, and it's way too late and I am going to bed right now!!!!!!!!!!

I'm on IMDB!!!!!!!!!!!

Holy crap holy crap holy craaaaaaaap!!

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2867705/

I'm going to try to make sure my Ratatouille credit gets on there correctly too. Oh man that's awesome.

New Hampshire debates

I watched the New Hampshire democrat debates tonight and it was really interesting. Hillary Clinton got really worked up because Obama and Edwards were agreeing on some issues and she took that as them ganging up on her. To me it implied that she couldn't really handle this kind of pressure as well as Obama, since Obama had a lot of attacks tonight and seemed to do an excellent job of maintaining his composure throughout the debate. They all looked pretty worn out from all the running around they are obviously doing at the debates, but it was interesting anyway to hear from all of them. Edwards got really fired up and had some really interesting and passionate things to say, and this was really solid too. Still though, I think Obama is just so so so so good, polite, serious about the job, focused, clear and concise... he's really, really good. And he seems to do a much better job of "just answering the question" without dancing around every topic all the time like other politicians seem to do. Very good.

I tell ya, if I could vote in the US this election... it would be for Obama, most definitely.

What a positive attitude he has, and this is something that America really needs at this point. He's right - there is this attitude of cynicism about Washington, like "it's so broken, so don't even try to fix it", and he is really trying to change people's minds and turn the whole place around. He seems so revolutionary and I love how people keep comparing him to JFK and calling him an "inspiration" - I certainly have never felt quite this strongly about a specific election or candidate before. I am sure there will be a large young crowd voting this time. Exciting stuff!!

Starting to think about going to South Africa

My sister Norma and I are talking now about going to South Africa this summer! Craaaaaaazy eh!!!!!!!!!

I just started looking into details and South African Airways currently has a reaaaaaaally good deal from JFK or Washington to Johannesburg (either direct or through London, Amsterdam or some other places), it's a buy 1 get 1 free deal??!??!?!!! That is totally amazing and ridiculously useful. It does not apply to the summer yet, but we'll see if we can either convince them to carry over the deal, or at least ask them when they'll have the next deal for summer vacations. Pretty AMAZING!!

Movie Review: Juno

Straight up... this is one of the best movies I've seen in a while.

The things that stick out as being fantastic in this film are...

• The Direction
• The Soundtrack
• The Script/Story
• The Acting
• The Casting
  

Hold on, isn't that like, you know, the whole movie?!??!! Yes, folks, yes it is.

I knew it was going to be good, but it totally blew me away. It's got a 94% on Rottentomatoes at the moment which is outstanding and it definitely deserves this. It was suuuuuuuuch a good movie. Good times had by all, and I did see it with some of my favourite people in the world (which added to my enjoyment of the movie, obviously), but if I was sitting in a cold, dark room with bad lighting and acoustics and the ceiling was dripping water on me and I had wet socks and all there was to eat and drink was cold pizza and flat coca-cola... I would have still loooooooooooooooved the movie.

Why was it SO good? Well, I heard the movie and the soundtrack described as "quirky" (i.e. kinda emo and some spoken-word as well as silly sounding off-key songs that trade vocals between a guy and a girl singer... basically kinda wierd but still awesome.) It is hardcore reminiscent of the Napoleon Dynamite soundtrack.

The acting was just perfect, and the casting was spot-on too. The acting powerhoused-ness of Michael Cera and Jason Bateman is clear since their Arrested Development days, and J.K. Simmons was just as hilarious as he was as the head Newspaper editor in the Spider-Man movies. Amazing. Ellen Page is perfect for the role too, and pulls off the silly teenage lines in the script with perfect comedic timing. The script was ridiculously funny, and I have a feeling Diablo Cody has got to get at least a nomination for the Oscars this year.

The direction was glorious too. When your Dad is the legendary Ivan Reitman, I bet it's a pretty nurturing environment to become such an amazing director, and Jason Reitman's previous film, Thank You For Smoking, was also very, very, very good. And VERY different from the usual kind of film you see. I love this "wide audience indie" genre. I loved it, loved it, loved it.

Seems to me that Fox Searchlight really knows how to pick films. Every Fox Searchlight film I've ever seen I've loved, and they are these sort of lower budget films that are still professional and so on, but don't have much of the typical Blockbuster-ness added to them... pretty minimal special effects and sound, and so more of a focus on the acting and the relationships on the screen. Very, very good.

Brilliant direction, an absolutely spot-on soundtrack, perfect casting, painfully honest and natural script... this is pure gold. Expect a lot of Oscars for this one. :) Well done Jason Reitman, and what a cast!!!!

Chillin' in the T-Dot

The last full day in Toronto I hung out with Matt a bunch and got some Tim Hortons coffee (obviously) and then decided to wander up and down Queen St (walked all the way to Spadina and back), then around the Eaton Centre and back to meet Matt at Autodesk for lunch. Managed to meet Alex for lunch too which was awesome. Then back to Alias (I mean Autodesk) to see Matt's desk and talk to some old friends and co-workers from back in the day. Good times!!!! Everyone was really nice as usual and happy to see me which was great, and a good boost to my otherwise low self-esteem (haha, yeah right) :)

I had pretty much no sleep the night before (too much cool stuff happening, then we watched the Futurama movie, and so on) and so I had a much-needed shower and nap at Alex's house which was a good call. In the evening I met up with Angie et al again, Kate, Paul and Alex were there as well as their friend Shay who ended up being a super awesome legend... and BEST FRIENDS with none other than my famous long-lost brother Kristjan Bergey. So yes, I met the famed Kristjan Bergey and his awesome girlfriend Holly and the lot of us went to go see the movie "Juno" which was completely amazing. What an awesome day!!!!

Also, dang it was cold!!! It was sitting around 0 C (32 F) degrees on New Years, but dropped 20 DEGREES overnight?!??!! So yeah it was -11 C (12 F), but it "felt like" -23 C (-9.4 F) with windchill. The next day it dropped again to -17 C (1.4 F) but with still a very strong windchill that made it a LOT colder. Man, Toronto was FREZZZZZZZZING!!!!

I got back to London a couple days ago and since then it's been a reasonable -2 C (28 F) which is a walk in the park compared to Jan 1 and 2 in Toronto, man this country is nuts!!!


Whhhhhhhooohoooo it's cooooollld


Oh Canada


Wandered by my old work to see some friends


Out at Spring Rolls (again) with Matt and Alex


Kate and Angie (aka Numero)


Paul and Shay


Me and Kate


Back at Angie and Paul's place, rockin' a funny stemless wine glass


Good times!!


Haha, awesome


Angie chillin' while we rock out some guitars/bongos


Paul workin' it, guitar-wise


Sweet deals


Haha I love it


My long-lost "brother" Kristjan Bergey!!!!!!!!!!

More Toronto-y good times

On Jan 1st we took off to the north of Toronto to meet one of Tim's friends from University. We went to her house, it was super nice and everyone was really welcoming and there was lots and lots of good food like bagels and lox. Good stuff!!

There was a lot of snow the night before so the trees on the drive up were really nice.

Then in the evening I chilled with Matt, got some Korean BBQ and had a nice long chat about all the stuff we've been up to, and then saw Matt's new apartment.


Snowy Trees 1


Snowy Trees 2


Snowy Trees 3


Snowy Trees 4


The chocolate that Matt got for Christmas


CN Tower at night


Sweeeeeeet


Matt's new aparment


Sweet


View from Matt's new place


More view from Matt's place


Matt on the balcony


Some Wii video game playing


To all my American friends out there... this is called a "Milk Bag" and is inside of a "Milk Jug" :)